On a similar note, how advanced were Roman metallurgy?
Could the Roman Republic have equipped its soldiers with lamellar armour, like what the Byzantines wore?
The Lorica squamata (scale armour) existed during the pre-Byzantine ear. The Roman victory triumph depicting Trajan's victory over the Dacians, the Tropaeum Traiani, shows the majority of legionaries wearing lorica squamata. On another Trajanic monument (the Adamclisi Tropaeum) the lorica segmentata does not appear at all, and legionaries and auxilia alike are depicted wearing either mail or scales (lorica squamata).
Lorica plumata was also a lamellar armour, but more expensive.
There were :
- Lorica segmentata/lorica laminata (laminar armour, four types actually existed)
- Lorica Albae Juliae (statue found at Alba Julia in Romania, shoulders being protected by scale armour and the torso hoops being fewer in number and deeper).
- Lorica hamata (mail armour)
- Lorica squamata (scale armour)
- Lorica plumata (scale mail)
Each of those armours had various types.
Legions were broken up and distributed around all these small bases, then it implies a tactical use of the legions that has not previously been considered. Hitherto, the legions were regarded as shock troops employed only en masse and not broken up into detachments. In my opinion, all those armours coexisted in legions/detachements and were simply used according to tactical situations and geographical contexts, either by auxillaries or legionnaries.
It's fun to imagine, what would have happened if Roman legions used Crupellarius armors in certain circumstances. Sadly, it probably didn't happen
